Mr. Weasley led the way in front, and everyone hurried into the woods along the lantern-lit path, clutching the things they had bought.
They could hear tens of thousands of people moving all around them, shouting, laughing, and singing in scattered bursts.
That feverish excitement was extremely contagious. Even Harry's mood brightened in spite of himself.
They walked through the woods for twenty minutes, laughing loudly and joking with one another as they went. At last, they emerged from the other side of the trees and found themselves standing in the shadow of a colossal stadium.
Harry could only see part of the magnificent wall surrounding the pitch, but he could already tell that ten cathedrals could fit inside it without issue.
"It can seat a hundred thousand spectators," Mr. Weasley said with a smile when he noticed Harry staring at the stadium. "Five hundred Ministry workers spent an entire year on this. Well? Spectacular, isn't it?"
Harry nodded slightly, unwilling to spoil Mr. Weasley's enthusiasm.
Everything before him was indeed spectacular, but only by the standards of the wizarding world.
He had once piloted a floating city across different dimensions. He had once participated in conflicts between civilizations in the universe. He had once waged war against Dimensional Demon Gods inside their own dimensions. He had once fought a Celestial.
To Harry, this was only average. It was nowhere near enough to truly surprise him.
That was exactly why he wanted to reform the wizarding world, raise the wizarding world's overall level of power, and eventually build mighty, magnificent structures like floating cities inside it.
The wizarding world was still too backward, and a large part of that was due to its decaying system.
Otherwise, how could a world whose basic rules were rooted in chaos magic, a world capable of controlling the powers of time and space, possibly be this weak?
His thoughts churned beneath the surface, but outwardly Harry wore an amazed expression and said, "It really is spectacular. I'm getting more and more curious about this match."
Mr. Weasley patted Harry's head, and before Harry could pull away, he immediately withdrew his hand, clenched his fist, and waved it excitedly.
"Come on. The wizarding world hasn't been this lively in a long time!"
Mr. Weasley led everyone toward the nearest entrance, where a crowd of shouting wizards had already gathered.
"First-class tickets!" the Ministry witch at the entrance said after looking at their tickets. "Top Box! Straight upstairs, Arthur, all the way to the top."
The staircase leading into the stadium was covered with a purple-red carpet.
They climbed upward with the crowd. Gradually, streams of people peeled away into the stands on the left and right.
The group led by Mr. Weasley kept walking up until they finally reached the very top of the staircase.
They found themselves inside a small box at the highest point of the stadium, directly opposite the golden goalposts.
There were about twenty purple-and-gilt chairs inside, arranged in two rows.
Harry followed the Weasleys into the front row and looked down.
A hundred thousand wizards were slowly taking their seats. The stands surrounded the oval stadium, rising upward in tiers.
From their high vantage point, the pitch looked as smooth and even as velvet.
On either end of the field stood three scoring hoops, each fifty feet tall.
To their right, almost level with Harry's line of sight, was a massive blackboard. Golden words constantly flashed across it, as though an invisible hand were writing rapidly across the board.
The words were all advertisements. Bluebottle, a broom for the whole family, safe and reliable.
Then there was another one, Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover, remove stains with ease.
From the looks of it, although the wizarding world was cut off from the modern world, it was still influenced by it.
Several decades ago, the wizarding world did not really have the concept of brands.
Over the next half hour, their box gradually filled with people.
Mr. Weasley kept shaking hands. At a glance, all of them were wizards of considerable status.
Percy hurriedly stood up again and again, looking as though he were sitting on the back of a porcupine covered in spikes. He was a young wizard who pursued fame and status, and he had learned the adult way of doing things very early.
This behavior was hard to call good or bad.
When the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge himself, arrived, Percy bowed so low that his glasses fell to the floor and shattered.
He was mortified. He repaired the lenses with his wand, then sat stiffly in his seat.
At that moment, Cornelius Fudge suddenly noticed Harry nearby, and his whole body froze. The atmosphere inside the Top Box instantly became strangely tense.
Most of the wizards seated in the first-class area were pure-bloods. They were well-informed, so naturally they knew about the conflict that had happened some time ago.
However, since the Hogwarts professors had not taken the initiative to spread the news, the version of the conflict that reached those who had not been present came from the Ministry of Magic and the pure-blood families.
According to the Ministry and the pure-blood families, Hogwarts had been easily defeated during the previous conflict and had become much more obedient. However, out of great mercy, they had temporarily forgiven Hogwarts' mistakes.
But if Hogwarts and Harry Potter tried to stir up anything again, the Aurors would send them straight to prison.
So in the eyes of most pure-blood wizards, the Ministry of Magic undoubtedly had the upper hand.
Now that the Minister for Magic, Fudge, and the savior, Harry Potter, had met, all of them were guessing whether Fudge would drive out this ignorant fool who had always wanted to reform the wizarding world, or simply send him directly to Azkaban.
But Fudge had never thought that way.
He had always known how terrifying Harry's strength was. That strange magic seemed like powerful ancient magic, and it could easily defeat modern Aurors.
If they wanted to defeat Harry, the difficulty would be no different from defeating Dumbledore.
The moment he saw Harry, the only thing Fudge did was complain wildly in his heart about why this disaster had to be here.
Still, Fudge reacted quickly. He came to Harry's side, took his hand, and greeted him warmly, as though the situation between the two of them was not tense at all.
Harry also did not want to ruin the atmosphere during such a joyous occasion, so he spoke gently with Fudge as well. That made Fudge let out a sigh of relief.
At this time, a male wizard standing nearby asked curiously, "Minister Fudge, who is this?"
Fudge paused, then quickly introduced Harry to the man.
"Harry Potter, you know," he said loudly to the wizard dressed in a magnificent black velvet robe trimmed with gold. "Minister Oblansk, the Bulgarian Minister for Magic. This is Harry Potter.
"Oh, just think for a moment. You should know who he is. The boy who survived You-Know-Who. You must know him now, surely."
The Bulgarian wizard suddenly saw the scar on Harry's forehead. He immediately pointed at it excitedly and spoke a rapid string of words.
It seemed he did not understand English.
That made sense. When Fudge had been speaking with him just now, he had not been using English either, but another language. If Harry had not been so knowledgeable, he would not have understood what the two of them were saying.
At that moment, someone in the box said, "Lucius is here!"
Harry, Ron, and Hermione turned around.
Squeezing into the three still-empty seats in the second row behind Mr. Weasley were Lucius Malfoy, his son Draco, and a woman, Draco's mother.
As Harry and the others noticed the Malfoys, the Malfoys also noticed them.
When the two sides met, the atmosphere that had just barely eased became even more tense. Young Malfoy snorted coldly at Ron to show his disdain, and Ron naturally glared back at him, refusing to back down.
However, when no one else was paying attention, the elder Malfoy gave Harry a slight nod.
Previously, young Malfoy had become Harry's Lender. After that, he had successfully become the spy Harry placed among the pure-blood families.
Then young Malfoy used the benefits Harry had promised to persuade the elder Malfoy. Now, the entire Malfoy family had become Harry's spies among the pure-blood families.
But unlike others, the Malfoys would be loyal to Harry when he held the advantage. The moment he fell into a disadvantage, they would immediately switch sides.
The Malfoys were very clever. They always bet on both sides. They might not win big, but they would never truly lose.
That was also why the Malfoy family had become one of the wealthiest pure-blood families.
"Ah, Fudge," Malfoy said, extending his hand as he walked past the Minister for Magic. "How are you? I don't believe you've met my wife, Narcissa. And our son, Draco."
"Hello, hello," Fudge said, bowing to Mrs. Malfoy with a smile. "Allow me to introduce you to Minister Oblansk. Let me see who else is here. Ah, you know Arthur Weasley, don't you?"
Lucius turned to look at Mr. Weasley. Although he had become Harry's spy among the pure-blood families, that did not stop him from disliking Weasley. So he immediately mocked him in the style of a pure-blood family.
"Good heavens, Arthur," he said softly. "What did you have to sell to get seats in the Top Box? Surely your belongings aren't worth this much, are they?"
Fudge did not understand what he meant. He said, "Arthur is my invited guest."
In Fudge's eyes, although the Weasley family was fairly close to Harry Potter, they were still a pure-blood family. They would not betray the interests of pure-blood families.
This was different from Voldemort and the Death Eaters. This was a matter of bloodline.
But clearly, the Weasley family was completely different from what he imagined. They were very dissatisfied with the wizarding world's existing rules. Dumbledore had only probed them with a few words, and the Weasleys were already eager to join the tide of reform sweeping the wizarding world.
Being publicly humiliated over his family's poverty made Mr. Weasley lose some face, but he truly had no way to refute it. He could only flush red and stammer a few times.
After that, Lucius's gaze swept toward Hermione.
Hermione's face flushed slightly, but she met his stare without backing down.
Harry praised her inwardly. She really was a bold young witch. As expected of a Gryffindor.
Harry knew why Lucius had deliberately glanced at Hermione with dissatisfaction.
After all, the Malfoy family's public image had always been that of an ancient pure-blood family proud of its bloodline.
In other words, they believed that Muggle-borns like Hermione were inferior.
But now they were Harry's potential allies, and with the Minister for Magic watching, the Malfoys did not dare say anything too outrageous.
Lucius merely nodded mockingly at Mr. Weasley, then continued toward his seat.
Young Malfoy cast a contemptuous glare at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, then sat between his parents.
Harry sensed the fear in young Malfoy's heart and found it somewhat amusing, though he also felt a little impressed.
Despite always being at a disadvantage whenever he faced Hermione, young Malfoy truly was a rare talent.
He was only fourteen, yet he already possessed such excellent acting skills, completely hiding his relationship with Harry.
Harry felt that if Draco were in the multiverse, he might have been born to be an agent.
Is that you?
Nick Fury?
"Nasty piece of work," Ron muttered, turning his gaze back toward the pitch.
Before long, a wizard named Ludo entered the box. At Fudge's signal, he drew his wand and pointed it at his throat, using the Sonorus Charm.
Then he announced that the 422nd Quidditch World Cup had officially begun.
The audience erupted in cheers. Tens of thousands of flags for different teams waved at the same time, creating an incredibly lively scene.
Of course, advertisements were indispensable too. They were pasted everywhere.
After that, different Quidditch teams began appearing, and the Veela came out to dance.
The Veela of this world possessed an extraordinary enchanting talent. What surprised Harry was that this enchantment was hardly any different from that of a succubus.
If wizards did not possess chaos magic and have extremely high resistance to mental attacks like enchantment, then perhaps every wizard would have become a slave to the Veela.
Very soon, the match began.
An international Quidditch match was indeed much more exciting than a Hogwarts school team match. In the end, the Bulgarian team caught the Golden Snitch, earning their team one hundred and fifty points.
However, the gap between their team and Ireland was too large. Before they caught the Golden Snitch, Ireland had already gained a lead of one hundred and seventy points, so Ireland still won.
After the match ended, everyone slowly descended the staircase covered with purple-red carpet.
They followed the lantern-lit path back to their tent, then returned to Harry's suitcase.
Once they were back in the castle, the Weasley family was still fiercely discussing the match. Clearly, they loved Quidditch from the bottom of their hearts.
After dinner, everyone returned to their own rooms to sleep, and Harry also went to the castle's master bedroom.
However, just after he fell asleep, his magic suddenly fluctuated slightly, and a trace of insignificant danger disturbed him.
Harry frowned and got up. Observational runes flashed across his eyes, and he saw the scene outside the tent.
At this moment, the entire Quidditch campsite had already descended into chaos. Everyone was fleeing.
Because the castle was separated from the outside by two layers of space, no one else inside had sensed anything unusual except Harry.
Harry thought for a moment, then decided to wake the others.
By the time he woke everyone up, five minutes had already passed. When the group walked out of the tent, the surrounding chaos had grown even worse.
People were running toward the woods one after another, as though fleeing from something moving toward them through the campsite.
That thing was flashing strangely and making noises like gunshots.
Loud jeers, wild laughter, and drunken shouts kept ringing out.
Then a burst of strong green light flashed, illuminating everything around them.
That was, the Killing Curse.
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